Professional Reading Shelf
OCLC
OCLC Worldcat now running on Oracle platform
From the announcement, “‘This is an important step in our strategy to evolve WorldCat beyond bibliography into a globally networked, Web-based information resource that will also provide links to digital objects in other knowledge repositories,’ said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. The switch from our own system to the licensed software approach enables us to develop new component applications based on open architectural models that provide improved interoperability within OCLC services and also with external services,’ said Mr. Jordan. The new WorldCat platform will support additional standards such as the Dublin Core metadata standard, IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Unicode. WorldCat on the new platform allows for unlimited record sizes, and will enable users to access abstracts, full text, images and sound files as well as bibliographic and location information.”
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Government Documents–United States
Source: ALA
Statement from ALA President-Elect Michael Gorman on the destruction of Department of Justice documents
From a statement by ALA President-Elect Michael Gorman, “ALA has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the withdrawn materials in order to obtain an official response from the Department of Justice regarding this unusual action, and why the Department has requested that documents that have been available to the public for as long as four years be removed from depository library collections. ALA is committed to ensuring that public documents remain available to the public and will do its best to bring about a satisfactory resolution of this matter.” We have more about the story in this post from last Saturday.
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Music Libraries–Copyright
Source: Music Library Association
Copyright for Music Librarians
Comprehensive, regularly updated. Contains:
+ “FAQs - scenarios and guidance about general copyright provisions, reserves, preservation, performance rights, issues for composers and authors, and video in the library”
+ “Current Issues - information about pending legislation, news, and litigation and its impact on music libraries”
+ “Guidelines - full text of various guidelines relevant to music and education as adopted by professional organizations; including the Music Library Association’s statements on the Copyright Law and Fair Use in Music and Digital Transmission of Electronic Reserves”
+ “Resources - selection of virtual and tangible copyright resources”
+ “About Us - who we are, why we provide this service, and a brief history of this website”
See also: The Music We Perform: An Overview of Royalties, Rentals and Rights (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association; PDF, 332 KB)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Medicare
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
Just Released, Medicare Drug Discount Cards: A Work In Progress
“This report examines the early experience with the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card Program, prices offered by card sponsors, and potential savings for enrollees. The report presents information about approved discount card programs, including sponsors, enrollment fees, and drugs covered, as well as beneficiary education and outreach efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The pricing analysis shows that discount cards can deliver savings off of full retail drug prices, but also that savings for individual beneficiaries can vary significantly across card programs. In contrast to predictions that market forces would result in lower drugs prices, no notable price changes were observed after the program’s initial start up period.”
See: Report and Executive Summary
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French Revolution–Primary Resources
Source: George Mason University Center for History and New Media
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring The French Revolution
From the site: “[P]rovides an accessible and lively introduction to the French Revolution as well as an extraordinary archive of some of the most important documentary evidence from the Revolution, including 338 texts, 245 images, and a number of maps and songs.”

Health Information–Databases
Source: NLM
Keyboarding Ceases as a Data Creation Method for MEDLINE Citations
From the article, “he keyboarding data creation stream for MEDLINE citations ceased June 29, 2004. NLM used keyboarding to create journal article bibliographic data since 1967…NLM developed a cost-effective scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) system as well as a standard for direct electronic submission of citation data from publishers to MEDLINE. Publisher-supplied electronic citation data today accounts for about 75% of all new MEDLINE citations and the proportion continues to grow. The scanning and OCR system has been improved to the point that it can handle the rest of the journals. As a result of these developments, it is no longer cost effective or necessary for NLM to continue the keyboarding operation.”

Web Search–Microsoft
Source: News.com
Microsoft puts multisearch tool on show
From the article, “MSN Chief Yusuf Mehdi showed a prototype of the search software to an audience at its annual Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting here. The technology is designed to quickly look through a hard drive, finding all the matches for a word from within documents, e-mails and even e-mail attachments. The version Mehdi presented also returned Web results on the right side of the page…. The demonstration marked the first time Microsoft has showed off the technology, which Mehdi said would be part of a ’service,’ although he did not offer further details…. Microsoft had been expected to combine Web search with local PC search, but many had anticipated the move would come with Longhorn, the next version of Windows. Mehdi did not give specific details, but said the local hard drive search service would come before that launch.”
See Also: MSN search engine chugs along (via Marketwatch.com)
From the article, “Right now, “you can’t find things on the Intranets or local PCs,” Mehdi said as he gave the audience a sneak preview of live code that wasn’t yet shipped.” I’m sure the enterprise search industry will have plenty to say about this comment.
See Also: I’ve just updated the ResourceShelfEXTRA SELECTED List of Microsoft Search Patents and Technical Reports

Information Networks–United Kingdom
Source: BL
�3 million national framework for UK research information announced
“A new national initiative - the Research Libraries Network (RLN) - announced today, is set to transform the way research information is collected, organised, preserved and accessed across the UK. The RLN will bring together the UK’s four higher education funding bodies, the British Library, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales and the eight members of Research Councils UK to develop the UK’s first national framework aimed at addressing the information needs of researchers.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Personalization
Source: Cyrus Shahabi and Yi-Shin Chen, Department of Computer Science, USC
Web Information Personalization: Challenges and Approaches (2003)
“As the number of web pages increases dramatically, the problem of the information overload becomes more severe when browsing and searching the WWW. To alleviate this problem, personalization becomes a popular remedy to customize the Web environment towards a user’s preference. To date, recommendation systems and personalized web search systems are the most successful examples of Web personalization. By fo-
cusing on these two types of systems, this paper reviews the challenges
and the corresponding approaches proposed in the past ten years.”
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Libraries and Librarians
A New Issue (#40) of Ariadne is Now Available
Articles include:
+ Rights Management and Digital Library Requirements by Karen Coyle
+ An Introduction to the Search/Retrieve URL Service (SRU)
+ Weblogs: Do they belong in libraries?
+ Towards Library Groupware with Personalised Link Routing
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Citation Linking
Source: Information Today
Linking on Steroids
“P�ter Jacs� highlights some of the best and worst linking practices he’s encountered.”
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E-mail–Retention and Storage
Source: Transform Magazine
What You Should Know About E-Mail Archiving
“E-mail retention needs often conflict — even among departments in the same company. Records management expert Julie Gable suggests seven steps to effective archiving.”
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eBooks–Issues and Commentary
Source: Gizmodo
Feature Creep: 500 Books In Your Gadget Bag
“We’ll need a great eBook reader with trendy clout and not just livable, but convenient, DRM to really break open the market. But, no, Virginia, you won’t have to give up your pretty printed books. Books are important. Books are as entrenched in contemporary first-world culture as anything I know. Books are really part of us, even those of you who don’t read so much.”
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Librarians
Source: The Daily Nonpareil
Muscatine librarian starts her bicycle ride across Iowa today
“The plight of libraries across the state of Iowa is serious. That is the message from Betty Collins, a Muscatine children’s librarian who is setting out today from the Council Bluffs Public Library on her folding Dahon bike across the state to bring awareness to blighted Iowa libraries.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Legal Industry–United states–Lists and Rankings
Source: The American Lawyer
Just Released, Am Law 200 (Registration Required, Free)
The first 100 positions on the list, the Am Law 100, was released last month.
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Hospitals–Safety–Lists and Rankings
Source: HealthGrades
Patient Safety in American Hospitals
From the Press Release: “An average of 195,000 people in the U.S. died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a new study of 37 million patient records that was released today by HealthGrades, the healthcare quality company.”
+ Read the study
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Manufacturing–Lists & Rankings
Source: Industry Week
IndustryWeek’s U.S. 500 Manufacturing Companies
+ Search the database
+ View the list sorted alphabetically
+ An article about the rankings
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Iraq–Contracting
Documents in the News
Source: Coalition Provisional Authority Office of the Inspector General
Just Released, Coalition Provisional Authority’s Contracting Processes Leading Up To and Including Contract Award
See Also: Audit: U.S. Didn’t Track Iraq Spending(AP)
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Nanotechnology
Source: Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering
Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and Uncertainties
From press release: “The report was commissioned by the UK Government last year to consider current and future developments in nanotechnology. It identifies a range of potential benefits to be gained from nanoscience and nanotechnologies including new materials, more powerful computers and revolutionary medical techniques. The report recommends steps to realise these while minimising possible future uncertainties and risks.” Individual sections downloadable in PDF.

Resources of the Week
Two for you this week.
1) Aviation–Organizations
Source: United Nations
International Civil Aviation Organization
“ICAO was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of civil aviation in the world. A specialized agency of the United Nations, it sets international standards and regulations necessary for the safety, security, efficiency and regularity of air transport and serves as the medium for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 188 Contracting States.” There is a staggering amount of content here:
+ Aviation Training Directory
“The current edition features over 4600 course offerings of more than 420 training institutions from over seventy ICAO Contracting States. The directory is a good starting point for locating civil aviation-related training courses for various aviation professions.” Can be seached by country, course category, keyword or name of a training institution. Results include contact information, including e-mail address and URL if provided, plus the titles of courses.
+ Aircraft Engine Exhaust Emissions DataBank
“This Databank contains information on exhaust emissions of only those aircraft engines that have entered production. The information was obtained from engine manufacturers and was collected in the course of the work carried out by the ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP).” Download individual data sheets or the complete databank (.xls format).
+ Aircraft Type Designators Database
Search by manufacturer, model, description (e.g., helicopter, land plane, sea plane…), number and type of engines, type designator, wake turbulence category (heavy/medium/light, based on weight).
+ Alphabet–Radiotelephony
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.
+ ICAO Library OPAC
“(A) database of books, journals, articles, UN and ICAO documents, as well as other publications, available in the ICAO Library.”
+ ICAO Depository Libraries (list, with contact information)
+ Suggested Literature on Aviation Medicine (bibliography)
+ Case Studies of States’ Liberalization Experiences (database)
“Studies may cover such topics as the liberalization of bilateral air services agreements, regional and plurilateral liberalization arrangements, national liberalization policies, privatization of national airlines, sustainability and assurance of services in a liberalized market, policies on airline alliances and mergers, and policies to ensure fair competition.”
+ States’ Policies, Positions and Practices on Air Carrier Ownership and Control (database)
“The database contains information on each State’s current policy or practice with regard to: how it deals with designation of its own air carriers; how it deals with the designation of foreign air carriers; and what position it has on future airline designations.”
+ Code of Conduct on the Regulation and Operation of Computer Reservation Systems (CRS)
+ Directory of links
“This directory aims to provide a wide range of links to sites of interest to the civil aviation community.” Includes: governments and government-related organizations, international organizations.
+ ICAO Journal (full-text)
“The objective of the Journal is to provide a concise account of the activities of the International Civil Aviation Organization and to feature additional information of interest to Contracting States and the international aeronautical world.”
+ DAGMAR: ICAO’s Database of Aeronautical Agreements and Arrangements
Choose one or more airlines/signatories from dropdown menu. Dates optional. Or browse recent agreements (registered within the last year).
+ Handbook on the International Airways Volcano Watch (PDF; 2.01 MB)
“Operational procedures for the dissemination of information on volcanic eruptions and associated volcanic ash clouds in areas which could affect routes used by international flights, and necessary pre-eruption arrangements.” Also includes up-to-date information about active volcanoes, list of related websites. Download separate global contact list (PDF; 308 KB)
+ ICAO Treaty Collection
“List and status of international air law multilateral treaties,” which can be browsed alphabetically or by date of signing.
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2) Cultural Events–United States–Search Engines
Source: JAR Networks
EventJar
Do a simple keyword search for artist, band, cast member, dancer, event title, musician, organization, venue; or use the extended search form to narrow your query down by type of event, venue, organization, geographic location.
Each event in the database — is linked to related websites — e.g., for venues, sponsoring organizations, etc.

The site’s main page offers a Yahoo!-like drill-down directory of events, venues, organizations, performers and artists. Users may submit sites to be considered for targeting by the crawler and inclusion in the database.

According to the company, “EventJAR uses robots [a focused crawlers] that actively search the web in order to maintain a complete, constantly updated [some sites are checked daily] stream of information.” Among other things, it monitors more than 1,000 galleries and 630 museums for art exhibits. More than 4,000 cultural and entertainment venues are included in the database, and entries for each include NOAA weather reports and Mapquest road map links.

This new resource is just out of beta and still has plenty of room to grow. One to watch. We’re also interested to see if EventJar will begin to work with other search resources to have some local listings or a search box placed on these sites. For example, we can see a definite synergy between this database and Topix.

Professional Reading Shelf
National Libraries–United Kingdom
Source: Kable’s Government Computing
British Library makes online progress
From the article, “The British Library is making good progress with its electronic services, although needs to become more ‘customer friendly’ in some key areas, according to the latest assessment by official auditors. The library, which holds over 150m items, has undergone enormous organisational change in order to offer its online services, but it needs to ‘remain vigilant’ to ensure that the benefits from its digital programme can be sustained, the National Audit Office says in its report.”
See Also: Full Text of National Audit Office Report
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Librarians
Source: The Exponent (Purdue University)
Meet the Special Collections Librarians at Purdue University
From the article, “Oftentimes (people) don’t even know we exist and we have so much about the history of Purdue,” said Sammie Morris, assistant professor of library science and archivist. Morris, along with Katherine Markee, special collections librarian, works to both preserve the materials of the archives and help researchers find the facts that connect Purdue to history.”
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National Library of Medicine
Source: NLM Technical Bulletin
Webcast and Presentations from the NLM Online Users’ Meeting Now Online
“The meeting brought users up-to-date on some of the Library’s online systems as well as future plans.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Election 2004
Speech Transcripts: 2004 Democratic National Convention
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Teachers–Salaries–United States
Source: American Federation of Teachers
AFT Releases Annual State-by-State Teacher Salary Survey
+ Individual State Releases
+ Average Teacher Salary - State Rankings
+ Average Beginning Teacher Salaries
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Energy–Australia
Source: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Recently Released, Securing Australia’s Energy Future
Numerous statistics included. Available in both pdf and HTML formats.
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NATO
Source: House of Commons Library, United Kingdom
New Research Paper, NATO: The Istanbul Summit
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Election 2004–California
Source: California Online Voter Guide.
Just Released, California Online Voter Guide Debuts
11th Edition, November 2004 General Election.
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Fundraising
Source: GW Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
Recently Released, Full Text, The Political Consultant’s Online Fundraising Primer
“…a handbook for political candidates and nonprofit organizations. The handbook advises campaign and organization fundraisers on how to use the Internet to effectively raise money online.”
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Voting–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2002
Highlights ||| Full Text ||| Tables
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Chief Executive Officers–United States–Salary Surveys
Source: The Corporate Library
Highlights Only, Just Released: CEO Pay Survey 2003
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Spam–United States
Source: FTC
FTC Unveils A New Email Address to Report Spam

Privacy–United States
Total Information Awareness
Source: Government Executive
New Article, “Lightning Rod” (John Poindexter and Total Information Awareness)
From the article, “John Poindexter wants to help government predict the future. But how does he escape his past?… Poindexter bristles when people call him a lightning rod. He prefers ‘controversial,’ a word he ascribes to himself, his ideas and his deeds. But like a lightning rod, Poindexter takes a hit to protect those around him. In July 1987, he swore to the congressional committee investigating Iran-Contra that President Reagan never knew about the money he sent to the contras. Had Reagan known, lawmakers might have impeached him - and Poindexter says he recognized that. “The buck stops here with me,” Poindexter famously told committee members during the nationally televised hearings. Years later, when his presence imperiled his pet project, TIA, Poindexter took the fall and resigned, though by doing so he didn’t save all of the system. To some, Poindexter remains a pariah, but some technology executives and former federal officials call him a visionary.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Librarians–Interviews
Source: phoenixnewtimes.com
Check Her Out: Career Librarian Toni Garvey’s Big Win Was Long Overdue
“Seattle may have the Space Needle, and Paris may have the Eiffel Tower, but Phoenix is home to 2004’s Librarian of the Year. Toni Garvey hasn’t let her title go to her head, despite the fact that she was chosen earlier this year from among all librarians across the country. Although there was no swimsuit competition, the contest was fierce — even if the prize was nothing more glamorous than the recognition of Garvey’s peers and her mug on the cover of Library Journal magazine. Which is enough for the director of the Phoenix Library Department, who swears that, Internet be damned, libraries will always rule.”
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Training
Cooperative virtual libraries: training via internet of librarians and editors
This paper will be presented at the upcoming World Library and Information Congress: 70th IFLA General Conference and Council.
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National Libraries–Malaysia
Source: The Star
National Library to conduct survey on reading habits

Web Search–Google–Outage
Horrors! Google AWOL!
Source: Guardian Unlimited
A World Without Google
“On Monday, Google went down - and we suddenly realised just how empty life would be without it …”
++
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Tampa Columnist Ernest Hooper
“My head almost exploded Monday morning. I could not get the Google site to run searches, and it was driving my crazy. At one point, my hands started shaking. Just the thought of not having my Google brings back a slight tremble. Sorry, other search engines just won’t do.”
++
Source: Business2blog
Searching for Google
“The collective intelligence of everyone under 35 just dropped by about a third…
A denial-of-service attack? A nefarious plot orchestrated by librarians? How would I know, Google is offline!”
++
Source: ZDNet
Loss of Google Sends Users Scrambling
“Jonathan Bruce was in San Francisco trying to search for articles on the Democratic National Convention and Google’s plans for a stock offering when he got the error message as well. Bruce, like many, was forced to seek other ways of finding the information.”
++
You’ve heard it here on ResourceShelf before so we are loathe to repeat ourselves at length, however… Reliance on a single Internet search tool (yes, even Google) may leave you high and dry at worst…or at the very least, short-change you by failing to give you the best information or most complete information. (Do you reach for the same exact title every time you use your ready reference collection? Uh…didn’t think so.) Use other tools (general and specialized databases) regularly to familiarize yourself with their features. Check out which subscription databases might be freely available to you via your local public, school, academic, or special library. You might actually find something that is more useful than Google. And you will be less likely to go into a swoon the next time you see a dreaded “service error 27″ message instead of the 423,654 search results you expected when you queried Google. –The ResourceShelf Editors

(Note to information professionals: At least Google had a legitimate reason for being unavailable. We have no such excuse. It’s been said here before — numerous times. We need to do a better job of not only educating our customers but, even more critically, of reaching out to the “silent majority” which remains largely clueless about the products and services offered by today’s libraries, and the skills of the professionals who work there. Google can teach the library world plenty about how
to become indispensible.
See Also: Search Engine Overlap, Not as Great as You Think (via SearchDay)
See Also: Oh No! Librarians Using Google Page Totals to Determine Popularity (via Library Stuff)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Terrorism
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
Recently Updated, Full Text, Update on the Global Campaign Against Terrorist Financing
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Terrorism/Warfare–Bibliographies
Source: Air University Library
Two new bibliographies
+ Asymmetric Warfare
+ Suicide Terrorism
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Recently Updated Congressional Research Service Reports
Source: CRS via NCSE, FAS, and FPC
+ Campaign Finance: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Soft Money
+ Campaign Financing
+ Executive Branch Power to Postpone Elections
+ Nuclear Energy
+ Mining on Federal Lands
+ Mercury in the Environment: Sources and Health Risks
+ Kyoto Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol
+ Potential Military Use of Airships and Aerostats
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Crime–Canada–Statistics
Source: Statistics Canada
Crime statistics, 2003
Comprehensive overview of a new report released today.
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Environmental Protection Agency
Source: EPA
New, EPA Media Gallery
“A source page to view and download EPA news photos, video news stories, and audio news releases.”
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Energy–United States
Source: EIA
Energy Information Admin Modifies Library/Archives Web Page
“Instead of the “stovepipe” model previously used, in which reports were mainly grouped along an organizational scheme, the new model tags reports according to the energy topic(s) to which they belong. This makes it easier to display all reports with substantial information on a particular energy topic when a customer clicks on that topic.”
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Military–United States–Honors
Source: Congressional Medal of Honor Society
Medal of Honor Recipients
“The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States.” Here you can find:
+ Full list of recipients
+ Living recipients
+ Most recent recipients
+ Recently departed recipients
+ Double recipients
See also: Medal of Honor Citations (U.S. Army Center of Military History)
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Internet Security
Source: Verisign
Internet Security Intelligence Briefing
From the site: “The VeriSign Internet Security Intelligence Briefing provides a fact-based analysis of current trends in Internet usage, security and fraud.”
+ Read the latest briefing [PDF]

Briefly
+ New Library Blog: WisBlawg (from the University of Wisconsin Law Library)
+ Science.gov Adds GPO Access Federal Regulations Database to System
+ Two New IEEE Journals to Debut in 2005